


i've always wanted the home that you are

by boasamishipper



Category: Top Gun (1986)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Falling In Love, Family Drama, Family Reunions, Fluff and Angst, Found Family, Growing Up, Happy Ending, Leaving Home, M/M, Male Friendship, Post-Canon, iceman kazansky is russian and jewish because i say so, Русский | Russian
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-28
Updated: 2019-08-28
Packaged: 2020-09-29 06:31:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20430860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boasamishipper/pseuds/boasamishipper
Summary: Maverick never had a family. And that was okay with him. Most of the time.-Written for Writer's Month Day 28 for the prompt 'family.'





	i've always wanted the home that you are

_ maybe i’m a rolling stone _

_ who won’t amount to much _

_ but everything that i hold dear _

_ is close enough to touch _

_ \--Elvis Presley, "Home is Where The Heart Is" _

* * *

Pete Mitchell is three and a half years old when his father dies, somewhere on the other side of the world. The Navy gives his mother a folded flag and a handful of condolences, and Pete spends the next two years watching her go cold and distant. When she’s not working, all she does sit huddled under the blankets on her bed, eyes fixed on some point in the distance while her Otis Redding records play over and over again. Nothing he says or does seems to affect her — not good grades, not bad ones, not threatening to run away — and he quickly learns how to take care of himself.

She dies of cancer when he’s six. He doesn’t cry at the funeral. As far as he’s concerned, he’s been an orphan since November 5th, 1965.

They send him to live with his aunt — his mother’s older sister — in Westport, Connecticut, and he hates every second of it. His cousins are all older, and they make no effort to disguise their disdain for him at home and in school. Aunt Sarah is cold and snaps at him for the slightest mistake, and Uncle Harry works so many hours at the factory that he barely remembers Pete is there at all.

Pete starts acting out when he’s fourteen. He steals from stores, smokes and drinks, skips class, and gets into too many fights to name. He dates around and gets a reputation for it, and hides all of his pain beneath a veneer of sarcasm and arrogance. By the time he’s sixteen, he’s failing most of his classes, the police know him by name and face, and his aunt and uncle have stopped caring about him altogether. So he stops caring about them too.

It’s not until midway through his junior year that he realizes he can’t stay in Westport for the rest of his life. He needs to get out of this town, with its close-minded people and the endless waves of gossip and the relatives that can’t be bothered with him. He’s got no interest in college, especially not the Ivy Leagues that three out of his four cousins attend, and when he thinks of careers, all he can think about is the Navy, and being a fighter pilot just like his father.

Over the next year, Pete works harder than he ever has in his life. He gets his grades up from Ds to Cs, and then up to Bs. He gets a job as a busboy at the local diner and another at the flower shop in Jennings Plaza, and saves every penny. He applies to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, where his father had gone, and every other school he can think of. One way or another, he’s getting the hell out of here. 

He gets rejected from the Academy — only, from what he can tell, because he’s Duke Mitchell’s kid. Apparently his father isn’t the hero that Pete had spent his whole life wondering about; he’s a traitor, and a disgrace to the Navy. But Pete hadn’t spent the last year working his ass off only to give up now. If anything, this setback only hardens his resolve. He’ll get into the Navy, and he’ll become a fighter pilot. Not just like his father, but better. They’ll all see.

Pete Mitchell leaves Westport when he’s seventeen years old, with nothing but a high school diploma, a motorcycle, and the clothes on his back.

He’s got no family here, and no plans to ever return.

* * *

After NROTC, and NAS Pensacola, and flight school, he earns the callsign Maverick (which fits him better than any name he’s ever worn) and is sent to his first assignment, the USS _ Kennedy. _He’d had plans to blow everyone away in the air and keep to himself on the ground, but that all changes once he meets his RIO: Nick Bradshaw, callsign Goose.

Goose is a couple years older than him. He’d been NROTC too, at some university in Texas that Maverick doesn’t know, and he’s married, with a wife and newborn son. He’s kind, and funny, and easygoing, and he quickly becomes the best friend that Maverick’s ever had.

Over the years, the two of them grow closer. Maverick goes home with Goose on leave; he plays with Bradley, who thinks his motorcycle is awesome and calls him _ Uncle Mav, _ and lets Carole fuss over him, and laughs at Goose when he gets tipsy and starts playing Jerry Lewis songs on the piano. They tease each other and banter like brothers, and no matter how many times Maverick messes up — no matter how many times he’s reckless in the air, or gets into arguments in bars, or calls Goose to pick him up after a one night stand gone wrong — Goose is always just _ there, _a comforting, steady presence.

(Not-leaving: the deepest sign of affection you can give anyone, especially Maverick Mitchell.)

Goose is his family. Goose, and Carole, and Bradley. And Maverick swears to God that he’ll die before he lets any of them down.

* * *

_ We’re in a jetwash; this is not good — not good. Mayday, mayday, Mav’s in trouble, he’s in a flat spin, he’s heading out to sea. _

Maverick spends the night after the funeral screaming and sobbing into a pillow until his voice goes hoarse.

Nothing good ever lasts.

* * *

Their little family breaks apart not too long afterwards. Carole doesn’t want to stay in California — _ too many memories, _ she says with a watery laugh, and Maverick can’t say he blames her. She takes Bradley and moves back to Texas so they can be closer to Goose’s parents, and she keeps in touch with Maverick through phone calls and letters and the occasional visit, but it’s not the same. It’ll never be the same as it was.

He figures that’s it for him, after that. His biological family had been a mess, and the family he’d found with Goose had shattered (through no fault of his own). He’s just not destined to have a family, or to be loved unconditionally by anyone. So he throws himself into his work at TOPGUN and tries to convince himself that he’ll be alright without it.

And then he falls in love with Ice.

It’s the last thing in the world he expects to happen. Alright, yeah, he’d thought Ice was attractive from the moment they met — because come on, Maverick’s sole focus at the time might have been victory but he wasn’t _ blind _ — but it isn’t until after the Layton rescue (and after they both come back to TOPGUN) that Maverick actually starts to get to know him, and realizes that there’s much more to him than ‘ice cold, no mistakes.’ He’s smart, so goddamn smart it’s almost intimidating, and he’s got a sense of humor that’s drier than most but no less funny, and a great laugh, and a killer smile — and Maverick falls _ hard. _

He’d planned to keep his feelings a secret indefinitely, not wanting to ruin their friendship. Then one night after Ice drives him home following one too many drinks at the O Club, Maverick lets the liquid courage in his veins propel him forward, and he kisses Ice on the front steps of his house. And, miracle of miracles, Ice lets him.

It happens fast, after that, the way they fall together; almost like a dream. They have to be careful, because they value their careers almost as much as they value each other, but it’s the best thing he’s had in a long, long time. Being with Ice makes him feel free, like he could fly off into the sky without setting foot in a plane, and…happy. The kind of happy that makes him wonder how’d gone his entire life without it.

A year passes. Maverick learns that the Kazanskys always have family reunions in August, and is pleasantly surprised when Ice invites Maverick to come to Miami with him. They have to fly commercial to get there, and Maverick spends most of the flight clenching the armrests to keep himself from running to the cockpit and yanking the controls away from the pilot, but it’s all worth it once they land.

He already knows Ice’s parents from the time he’d come to their house for Thanksgiving, but it’s good to see them again. Jess hugs him and thanks him for coming out all this way, to which Maverick says he wouldn’t miss it for the world; Bill shakes his hand and, with a twinkle in his eye that he and Ice share, points out a few of the cousins that will be more than willing to share embarrassing stories about Ice’s childhood. (Ice’s older sister Taylor, who Maverick had also met the previous Thanksgiving, hadn’t been able to make it that year, but Bill and Jess both pass along her regards to Maverick.)

The cousins and aunts and uncles that are there are mainly from Ice’s father’s side of the family (though Jess’s sister and her kids are also in attendance) and, true to Bill’s word, they have plenty of embarrassing stories to share about Ice. Maverick can’t keep track of all of their names — he knows Jeanie is a kindergarten teacher and has three kids who think Ice is the coolest, and Maya is Bill’s sister, who’s an attorney out in New York, and Daniel and Alan are twins who are in the Marines — but he likes everyone that he meets.

He does get nervous when Ice takes him over to meet his grandmother, who’s pushing ninety but looks just as strong and capable of someone thirty years her junior. She’s sitting alone at one of the picnic tables, watching the rest of the family with a soft, barely-there smile, though the smile grows bigger once she sees Ice approach. “Привет, любимый мой,” she says, and she kisses him on the cheek. “Как дела?”

“Хорошо, спасибо,” says Ice, which — wow, alright. The Russian is _ definitely _something they’ll be discussing at another time, preferably in bed. And then Ice is stepping back, gesturing for Maverick to come forward. “Mav, this is my grandmother, Rachel Kazansky. бабушка, this is Maverick Mitchell, my…” He hesitates, only for the barest of seconds before finishing, “My boyfriend.”

Rachel Kazansky tilts her head to the side as she looks Maverick over. She’s got the same cool, assessing gaze as Ice, the one that makes Maverick feel like he’s being X-rayed. And then she says, “Maverick is your name?”

Maverick feels his mouth go dry. “Uh. Yes ma’am.”

“Hmm.” She’s silent for a bit, still sizing him up. “Ты еврей, Maverick? Are you Jewish?”

“Ah…no.” Panicked, Maverick glances over at Ice, unsure if that had been the right response. “No ma’am.”

Rachel gives a long, dramatic sigh, and she shrugs. “Ah, well,” she says, and her wry smile almost makes Maverick faint from relief. “Almost perfect.”

The gathering lasts until the sun leaves the sky and the moon takes its place. It takes at least an hour for everyone to say their goodbyes and pack up their belongings, even though Ice tells him that they’ll all be meeting again for brunch the next morning. Their hotel’s about half an hour away, and by the time they arrive, Maverick’s so tired that it’s all he can do to kick off his shoes and take his clothes off before collapsing into bed.

Ice turns off the lights and lays down next to him, and Maverick thinks he’s fallen asleep until he says, “Had a good time?”

Maverick turns over to face him. “Yeah,” he says, and he means it. “It was great. Your family’s great; I like them a lot.”

“They’re your family too, you know.”

Maverick frowns. “What do you mean?”

Ice glances over at him. “Well,” he says carefully, “I think of you as my family, so…you know. What’s mine is yours.”

For a second, he can’t even breathe. Every coherent thought has left his mind, replaced by _I think of you as my family, _which ricochets in his head like a bullet in a metal box. Family. After Goose’s death, he thought he’d never have one again — would never have the opportunity to have one again — and now…

Maverick thinks of Jess and Bill, and Taylor, and Rachel, and all of the cousins and aunts and uncles that had been present that night, and Tom Kazansky himself, the love of his fucking life, and thinks that he wouldn’t trade them for anything.

His throat is too tight for him to speak, to tell Ice what those words mean to him, so he just pulls Ice in for a kiss and lets that do the talking for him.

**Author's Note:**

> Russian translation:
> 
> Привет --> privet (hello)  
любимый мой --> lyubimyy moy (my love)  
Как дела --> kak dela (how are you?)  
Хорошо --> khorosho (good)  
спасибо --> spasibo (thank you)  
бабушка --> babushka (grandma)  
Ты еврей --> Ty yevrey (are you Jewish?)


End file.
